Great news, an investor in CMB Infrastructure Investment Group 78, LP (Group 78) has just received their first I-526E approval! The I-526E is a new petition introduced by the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (RIA), it replaces the legacy I-526 petition. The I-526E is a significant step in the EB-5 immigration process and qualifies an investor for conditional permanent residency in the United States. This investor’s petition was approved in approximately 13 months. This indicates that the USCIS is achieving lower adjudication timeframes when it comes to processing EB-5 petitions under the new RIA. The Group 78 partnership qualifies as a high unemployment project that receives a 10% visa set-aside allocation of the 10,000 visas granted under the EB-5 program each year.
The USCIS, as a result of the RIA, introduced several new forms which has led to operational efficiencies, among other things, to improve processing times. The I-956F petition is filed by Regional Centers for each EB-5 offering and adjudicated by the USCIS to determine whether the investment itself meets the program’s requirements. The I-526E contains investor-specific information related to suitability and the source of investment funds. Under the new system, an EB-5 investment partnership must achieve an I-956F approval before individual I-526E petitions are processed. It also improves efficiency by adjudicating the project information via the I-956F once as opposed to pre-RIA when the project was reviewed as part of each I-526 petition.
Group 78 was the first of 3 CMB EB-5 partnership to receive an I-956F approval under the new program. Group 78’s I-956F was approved in approximately 12 months (on June 27, 2023). This first I-526E was approved less than 4 months after the project approval, and we expect to see additional I-526E approvals in the near future. The CMB Group 78 partnership financed the development and construction of two industrial/logistics facilities in California:
The Waterman TI facility in San Bernardino, CA serves as a new state-of the art fulfillment center for Amazon.com. This Class-A fulfillment center consists of approximately 1,000,000 square feet and is located within the AllianceCalifornia master-planned business park
The Veterans Industrial Park I-215 subproject in Riverside, CA is an approximately 2,000,000 square foot distribution facility occupied by Target Corp. Inc.
Hillwood Development Company served as the borrower and project developer for Group 78. CMB has undertaken a multitude of EB-5 projects in partnership with Hillwood, many of which also targeted the industrial/logistics sector. The extreme growth of ecommerce in recent years has created significant demand for these facilities. We currently have several similar EB-5 investment opportunities open for subscription.
This is great news for all investors in the Group 78 project and a huge milestone for CMB. CMB is one of the oldest and most successful regional center operators in EB-5. We’re committed to build on our history of success and continue to help EB-5 investors from all over the world realize their American Dream!
